Broken Bow (episode)
Series: ENT Episode: 1x01 Original Airdate: 2001-09-26 Production Number: 001 Year: 2151 Date: April 12 Story by: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga Directed by: James L. Conway Earth launches its first starship of exploration, Enterprise, on a mission to return an injured Klingon to his homeworld. Summary Teaser "Where no man has gone before," Jonathan Archer recited, as he concentrated on painting the model of a starship. Jonathan's father, Henry Archer, commented that Zefram Cochrane would be proud of the child. In reply, Jonathan stated that he could recite the entirety of Cochrane's speech by rote. Curious about Henry Archer's ship, Jonathan asked his father when the new vessel would be ready. Unfortunately, the prototype craft had not even been built yet. However, Henry Archer informed his son that the vessel would eventually be of a considerable size. Jonathan dipped his paintbrush into a jar of paint and wondered whether the new craft would be bigger than "Ambassador Pointy's" ship. Henry Archer corrected his son that the man he referred to as "Ambassador Pointy" was actually called Soval, an extremely helpful Vulcan. However, Jonathan stated that, according to Billy Cook, humans would be flying at warp five if it weren't for Vulcan constraint. Although Henry Archer didn't fully understand the reasons behind the Vulcans' actions, he believed there must have been an explanation. Thirty years later, the wreckage of a Klingon ship lies abandoned in a cornfield in Broken Bow, Oklahoma on Earth. Klaang, the Klingon occupant of the destroyed craft, desperately races through the corn field, chased by agents of the Suliban Cabal. Klaang stumbles as one of the Suliban fires a weapon at him. Stepping out of a farmhouse, the owner of the cornfield, a farmer named Moore, sees a plume of smoke from the crashed Klingon craft and flashes of light from the Sulibans' weapons in the cornfield. Gulping, Moore urgently steps back inside the farmhouse. Reaching a clearing in the field, Klaang heads towards a nearby grain silo. The Klingon quickly glances behind him, before opening the door of the tall silo. Stepping inside, Klaang locks the large door behind him. Meanwhile, Moore exits the farmhouse, armed with a plasma shotgun. With an irritated expression on his face, the farmer prepares his weapon and runs towards the cornfield. Elsewhere, the Suliban step into the clearing and head for the door to the grain silo. Finding the entrance locked, one of the Suliban hands the other his weapon and lowers himself to the ground. He then proceeds to dislocate his skeletal structure as his body slides beneath the sealed door. On the other side, he opens the door for his partner and the two Suliban enter the grain silo. However, Klaang jumps out of a door at the top of the tall silo, finally making his escape from his alien pursuers. Removing a disruptor from his belt, the Klingon warrior fires a single shot at the silo, causing the construction to explode. Klaang is blown to the ground as pieces of debris hurtle towards him. As smoke from the explosion dissipates, the Klingon staggers to his feet. Arriving at the scene of the explosion, Moore seems horrified to find his grain silo has been destroyed. Noticing Klaang, the farmer aims his plasma shotgun at the Klingon, and tells the alien to drop his weapon. Klaang shouts Klingonese at Moore, although the farmer can't comprehend the meaning of the alien's words. When the Klingon steps forward, Moore fires his shotgun. By the force of the energy blast, Klaang is thrown backwards and lands in the corn. With his mouth agape, Moore frowns down at the injured alien. Act One Aboard an orbital inspection pod, Jonathan Archer, now a captain in the Earth Starfleet, and Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker travel to Starfleet's drydock facility in orbit of Earth. There, the prototype NX class starship ''Enterprise'' is gradually being prepared. On board the orbital inspection pod, Commander Tucker reports that the Ventral Plating Team will soon be finished their work on the new starship. Captain Archer advises Trip to make sure that the colour of the starship's ventral plating matches its nacelle housings. Archer jokes with Trip that he is planning to sit on the starship's hull and pose for some postcards. They comment that Enterprise is both beautiful and fast. In awe, the captain adds that Enterprise is able to travel from Earth to Neptune and return to Earth again in under six minutes. He tells Commander Tucker to pilot the orbital inspection pod to a better location to view the lateral sensor array. Trip adheres to the captain's request and Archer soon recognizes a section of the starship that he wants reinforced. The captain hands Trip a high-tech stylus and padd, and the engineer makes a note. With his attention diverted from the orbital inspection pod's control throttle, the pod lightly bumps into Enterprise. When Archer notes that the pod scratched some of Enterprise's paint, Commander Tucker apologises. A member of Starfleet contacts the pod and Tucker replies, referring to the inspection pod as "Orbital 6". The Starfleet officer reports that Admiral Forrest has requested Archer's immediate presence at Starfleet Medical. There, Archer insists that the launch date of Enterprise be brought forward to return Klaang to Qo'noS. Archer quickly assembles his crew, visiting Brazil to recruit linguist Hoshi Sato for communications. He also brings aboard Doctor Phlox, a Denobulan physician in the Interspecies Medical Exchange. Another addition to his crew is Sub-Commander T'Pol, who has been assingned as a "chaperone" by the Vulcan High Command to the position of executive and science officer, in exchange for the provision of Vulcan star charts. The ship is launched during a ceremony conducted by Admiral Forrest, accompanied by a recording of a speech by Doctor Zefram Cochrane. En route to Qo'noS, Enterprise is attacked by the Suliban, who extract Klaang from sickbay. The ship travels to Rigel X in search of Klaang, where Archer meetes Sarin, a renegade Suliban who informs him of the existence of the Temporal Cold War. The Suliban are promoting internal strife in the Klingon Empire and Klaang was transporting evidence of this back to Qo'noS to prevent a civil war. Sarin is killed by Cabal agents, and the Enterprise crew barely makes it back to the ship alive. T'Pol tracks a Suliban vessel back to the Suliban Helix, where Archer and Commander Tucker use a captured Suliban cell ship to board the Helix and extract Klaang. Archer also breaks the Helix apart using a magnetic device. Enterprise returns Klaang to Qo'noS and brings him before the Klingon High Council, and the Klingons recover their data. Enterprise officially begins its mission of exploration. Background Information *This is the first episode of Star Trek: Enterprise and the only two-hour episode in that series. *With the addition of this episode, Enterprise became the first Star Trek spin-off not to have a character from the previous Trek series appear in its pilot episode. Doctor McCoy was seen briefly in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Encounter at Farpoint"; Captain Jean-Luc Picard appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Emissary"; and Quark had a cameo appearance in Star Trek: Voyager's "Caretaker". *Several of the guest characters' names are homages to The Original Series. Admiral Forrest (named after DeForest Kelley), Admiral Leonard (Leonard Nimoy), Commander Williams (William Shatner) and Tos (an abbreviation of 'T'he 'O'riginal 'S'eries). *Farmer Moore was named after Ronald D. Moore. *Vaughn Armstrong (who holds the record for playing the largest amount of alien guest characters on Star Trek) played his first human role in this episode as Admiral Forrest. The character would continue to appear throughout the series. *James Cromwell reprises his Star Trek: First Contact role, Zefram Cochrane, in this episode, although his name does not appear in the credits. *Sections of Zefram Cochrane's speech were taken from the opening narrations heard in the title sequences of The Original Series and The Next Generation. *Gary Graham, who plays Soval in this episode, previously played Tanis in "Cold Fire", an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. *Thomas Kopache, who plays Tos in this episode, would later play a male Sphere Builder in "Harbinger". Memorable Quotes Links and References Guest Stars *John Fleck as Silik *Melinda Clarke as Sarin *Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Jr. as Klaang *Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Forrest *Jim Beaver as Admiral Leonard *Mark Moses as Henry Archer *Gary Graham as Soval *Thomas Kopache as Tos *Jim Fitzpatrick as Commander Williams *James Horan as Humanoid Figure *Joseph Ruskin as Suliban Doctor *Marty Davis as Young Jonathan Archer *James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane *Van Epperson as Alien Man *Ron King as Farmer Moore *Peter Henry Schroeder as Klingon Chancellor *Matt Williamson as Klingon Council Member *Byron Thames as Crewman *Ricky Luna as Carlos *Jason Grant Smith as Crewman Fletcher *Chelsea Bond as Lorillian Mother *Ethan Dampf as Lorillian Child *Diane Klimaszewski as Butterfly Dancer *Elaine Klimaszewski as Butterfly Dancer References 2119; Altarian marsupial; Billy Cook; boomer; decontamination chamber; dockmaster; Draylax; Draylaxian; Elkan Nine; immunocytic gel worm; Klingon language; K'toch class; orbital inspection pod; osmotic eel; OV-165; phase pistol; protocystian spore; Sector 3641; Earth Starfleet; sweet spot; Teneebian Moons; Trillius Prime; Vulcan Compound; Warp Five Complex; warp five engine Episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise Next Episode: Fight or Flight Category: ENT episodes de:Aufbruch ins Unbekannte, Teil I